


Home (is where the family is)

by ToTillAGarden



Series: Davenport Week [6]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, M/M, davenport week, oh wow i am so late, what is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 02:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12289740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToTillAGarden/pseuds/ToTillAGarden
Summary: Davenport's new ship, at first, doesn't feel like home - but, over time, it becomes one.





	Home (is where the family is)

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6 hOLY SHIT.
> 
> I physically cannot type correctly spelled English anymore, but I DID it! Tomorrow's the free day and then I can pat myself on the back and be like damn, I can do anything I set my mind to.  
> But in the meantime, you get to enjoy the fic I fell asleep like. 5 times while writing and finished at 5 am! Yay!
> 
> The theme today, was aftermath/forgiveness, and I think I did both! 
> 
> Your feedback, of course, has been and always will be super awesome - and will probably pick what I'm writing tomorrow, so stay tuned!  
> I'll see you then~

He called it the _S.S Starblaster,_ and sent it on a journey.  
It was small, but gorgeous and new; the deck was made of dark, almost black wood, the exterior sleek and white and modern, unlike the heavenly sailing ship he had the first time, but the engine was modeled after the bond engine on the old ship - just familiar enough to make him smile every time he tended to it.  
He designed the cockpit himself, as he did with the first one, but he made sure to make it different. This one was in a glass dome in the middle of the deck, the controls - a bit more technologically advanced and with a slightly more minimalist design - circling his chair, avoiding any flashbacks to the one cycle he regretted not being able to see what was going on above him. It took him a few hours to get used to the controls, but his piloting experience hadn’t been this smooth, streamlined or high-budget in the past 100 years, so he deserved it, a little.  
The apartment space below-decks was nowhere near as big as the ship he was used to, but it was good nonetheless. It had a decent-sized living room, if only just to fit all of his books in the shelves, the kitchen was small yet provided for him nonetheless, he had extra bedroom space, and the furniture was new, from the velvety couches to the hand-carved tables, chairs and bed frames. All of it was brand new, all except for his bedroom, which looked the same as it always had: it had the old bed frame, and the navy blankets and sheets, and his desk, still covered in stray pen marks, and the closet that only had one suit in it nowadays, and the desk lamp he used in his college dorm, and the old rug he got from his grandmother, and the window on the wall behind his bed, to look through when his brain was too full. The walls, however, had changed, though they weren’t re-painted or anything - they were covered more, in all the things that had used to be static. 

~

And yet, the _S.S. Starblaster_ didn’t feel like home, at first. When he left, he left alone, and spent a long while just running through the motions of his day, thinking if not singing through the silence sailing across the world like he dreamed of as a child; and when he felt too deep in his own head he went all the way below-decks where the floor was glass and stared into the ocean, or stopped at the nearest beach and did some exploring or shopping. And he always met people who recognized him, always met those who asked him for a ride or needed help or wanted company, and he made sure to get to know them and provide for them, but there was still something missing.

And then he stopped, almost by accident, in Bottlenose Cove, and Merle was there, and he expected him.  
His estate was still being built, but the family all squished themselves into the one room that had a floor and tried to be the best hosts they could. Mookie spent hours just running around him, and Mavis asked him about what space looked like and where the constellations were, and Merle and him sat down and had wine and Davenport couldn’t help but spend the night, fitting himself in that one room, because to him it felt familiar, and warm and safe.  
And then, while their estate was being built, they all climbed on the ship and sailed with him - Merle insisted on it, so he didn’t really have much of a choice - and they took up the three extra guest rooms, and suddenly, the ship felt lively again, his days filled with things to do and his exploratory spirit renewed; he spent the days seeing how far Mookie could swim without getting tired and talking with Mavis on the glass floor and the nights playing cards with Merle and talking and falling asleep on his shoulder, he started having all three meals every day and making sure he looked presentable in the mornings and noticed, after a few days with them, that he started calling the ship home.

It was Merle who gave him the idea to send postcards, too.  
When they landed in a resort town Davenport had been to before to restock on supplies, the whole family went along to shop with him, bumping into not only people that recognized the four of them but ones that Davenport had recognized from the last time too. And when they passed by a store full of souvenirs and Merle got things for the kids he took a postcard off of a rack and bought it for Davenport and when the gnome asked “Thanks, but what am I supposed to do with a postcard,” he said, “I don’t know; send it to someone!”

So he sent one to Angus first, from himself and Mavis, writing about their travels, how Merle tried to grow plants on the ship, how Mookie was getting cabin fever, and an apology from Davenport over not talking to him more while he was still up on the base, and after Davenport sailed away on the _S.S Starblaster_ but before Mavis put it in the mailbox, she wrote something on the bottom, in thin pencil:

_(if you have the time, go visit davenport sometime - he won’t admit it, but he needs the company. -mavis)_

~

Angus and Taako came to visit next - the excuse Taako gave was that having Lup, Barry and Kravitz away on business got him too deep in his own head, something Davenport could relate to - but in truth, it was Angus that suggested it, having gotten the postcard in full. And Davenport welcomed them in gladly, giving them two extra bedrooms and spending the next month with them; and, for that short month, Davenport noticed the happiness he had when the Highchurch's were there return to him. On the days they stayed on the ship he and Taako gave Angus specialized magic lessons and taught him how to swim, spending sleepless nights in the kitchen cooking meals; and on the days they wanted to travel they spent their mornings marking maps with the best shopping malls and natural wonders and the rest of the day picking a place and going there, and then when they got home they’d watch an old soap opera from their home planet and, after the movie ended and Angus was asleep, talking, in short, clipped sentences, about whether to forgive or what it was like to forget.

It was a different kind of happiness with Taako. As opposed to Merle’s, which felt domestic and sometimes romantic, being with Taako was being with someone who he could relate to and bond with, being with Taako was having wizard duels, being with Taako was staying up all night and drinking bitter, black coffee, being with Taako was trying on new clothes and painting their nails together and drinking out of coconuts even though it tasted bad and learning to deal with fans and paparazzi; but in the end, being with Taako was learning to heal and to race through time and to live life like there was a tomorrow, but there was always a risk they wouldn’t last that long.  
And the happiness Angus brought him was like becoming a new person. As opposed to finding out what it would be like to have kids, being with Angus reminded him of his younger self; being with Angus meant learning something new every day and learning how to be confident, being with Angus was always asking questions and always knowing that he didn’t have the answers, being with Angus meant fixing his glasses and always shopping for new - yet still unfashionable, according to Taako - clothes because he kept getting taller; but most importantly, being with Angus was remembering that while life was short there was still just enough room to learn and see and do it all, and while he still had a lot of it left why not make the most of it?

Angus helped him write that second postcard - he got it from a village built on a cliff over the ocean - and they wrote it to Magnus, sitting together in the kitchen on the way back to where he first picked them up while Taako cooked and occasionally contributed, telling them about their adventures and about how much Angus grew and about how small the kitchen was but at least the beds were comfy, and about how Angus hoped he’d be taller than Magnus because he grew so much on the ship, and they spent a few minutes thinking about how to sign it off before eventually going with “Joyfully yours.”

_(P.S. Make sure to come visit the ship soon!!! I feel like he might get a little lonely without us. -Angus)_

~

When Magnus came, he brought two dogs with him. The first was Johann, his constant companion yet still a puppy and still in training, and the second a Toller puppy with fur as red as Davenport’s hair and an immense love for the water, and when Magnus brought them over he said “Capn’port, I’d like to introduce you to your new first mate.”  
And Davenport laughed, stuttering out a protest as to how he was going to raise a dog on a boat but then going and embracing his friend nonetheless, and the two spent the day getting the puppies settled in before Magnus asked “So, do you know what you’re naming her?”  
And Davenport nodded, and named her Delilah, after his sister, but then frowned a little and said “Y-you know, I-I still won’t be able to raise a dog on this boat.”  
And Magnus replied with a “I can bring her back to the Hammer and Tails and train her and she’ll join you when she’s older, or I can stay for longer and train her with you and then you’ll just have to promise you come visit something not on the ocean sometimes,” and then he laughed, and did a mock salute, and said “I got you covered, Captain.”  
And they eventually decided on a mix of the two, making sure Magnus stayed for two months yet still letting her live on land for the first year and a half of her life. When they weren’t training their dogs or bonding with them they fished together or blasted music while doing chores - Magnus liked to dance with a broom, and Davenport couldn’t help but laugh over it - or took out the whiskey on nights they felt were extra special, and after that first month they went to the islands the judge had formed in the sea on the Day of Story and Song and helped build the communities there, and when one of the settlers gifted him the first ever postcard from that island he and Magnus sat down and he wrote what Magnus thought of and then sent it to Barry and Lup that time, and as they packed up the dog’s beds and their food and the chew toys scattered around the ship, Davenport realized how much Magnus gave him strength.

Magnus gave him strength and the ability to ask for help and a reason to have fun without thinking about things, Magnus gave him the motivation to help the world and the innocence that let him love it again, Magnus gave him the experience that is eating too much junk food with no shame and the realization that the amount of fuzzy blankets you have is proportional to how happy you are, but it wasn’t until Delilah came back that Davenport realized the therapy she gave him was the most amazing gift of them all.

And on the bottom of the postcard, added in right before he sent it, Magnus wrote a post-script:

_(come visit him, if you have the time? hed like it a lot -maggie)_

~

Barry, Lup and Kravitz brought back Taako again, and while the four of them spent almost three months on the ship they probably spent more time on land, going up rivers and spending a week at a time in every big port city, their one longer trip on water resulting in an ongoing prank war between them. But even while they were out and about and always busy, each of them found a way to fulfill Magnus’s request to the fullest: Kravitz and Davenport bonded over music and dragged everyone to orchestra concerts and operas and eventually a musical theater production, that latter one being the only one Taako really enjoyed; the twins got Davenport into Fantasy Chopped and tried the kitchen as a duo, but Lup, like Taako when he came alone, eventually found her own traditions, investing her time into helping him develop a fashion sense and having him learn how to fireproof things, or working together on her dream of waterskiing while being pulled by a dolphin, or having Davenport teach her how to ice skate; and Barry and Davenport caught up on their sci-fi and fixed things around the ship together and could spend hours in the Fantasy Home Depot because even if Barry got bored he’d still stay anyway, or did odd jobs around towns and then went to observatories and science museums late at night. But then, all together, they’d talk about magic theory and try out street performing and try to learn the physics behind Kravitz’s staff while also being incredibly drunk, and Davenport, again, realized that it was the twins, all the time, that showed him how much he could be missing if he didn’t love what he did and did what he loved.

And Davenport also noted whether it was the ability to immerse in his interests or the skill of learning to haggle at a flea market, and kept that in mind as all five of them wrote the postcard with him, and sent it to the Bureau of Benevolence right before they all went, together, to Carey and Killian’s wedding.

But it was Lup and Lup alone, that time, who caught Taako and Davenport spending late nights talking and added her postscript:

_(hey luc- you can read this to everyone, but when you come visit, come alone.)_

~

Lucretia, unlike the rest of the postcard recipients, was a surprise. The whole Bureau had agreed with Lup in that regard; Carey and Killian, being closer to her than ever, insisted that they only way she was ever going to remedy any relationship with Davenport was if she were to go there herself and talk to him, and so she did.  
And Davenport couldn’t say no - he picked her up by surprise, and she had no way of getting back home without him - so he let her in, and for the first week, it was quiet. They went about their days and didn’t talk much, and that was fine because neither of them needed to, but then slowly they found themselves painting and reading and eating together, and drinking expensive wine on nights when they finally felt ready to talk. And she stayed for two weeks and four days, enough time for them to read and edit each others journals and to exchange massage techniques and plan where the Bureau allocates its resources next and for her to get him a new Stone of Farspeech. But it was also just enough time for them both to realize that they were family through and through, and that their feelings are allowed to be complicated; but that was okay as long as they spent time together, because time heals all wounds.

They got postcards from an art museum they visited on the last day she was there, and made one for everyone who had come and who had yet to come, and put it in the mailbox together.

This time, what the two wrote didn’t need anything more.

~

He called it the _S.S Starblaster,_ but the other six called it Junior, as if it was the child of the ship they had lived in for a century.  
It was small, but homely; the deck was made of dark, almost black wood, now covered in scratch and scorch marks from spells gone wrong, the exterior sleek and white and modern before Lucretia designed the bottom near the glass, but the engine was still modeled after the bond engine on the old ship, and it seemed, like the real bond engine, to get even stronger with every bond he made or remade.  
He designed the cockpit himself, as he did with the first one, but it was different now than when he first got it. There were pictures on the console now, one of him in his old hat drawn in crayon by Angus and Mavis and a painting made by Lup and Lucretia together. It took him a while to get used to teaching the controls, but eventually, he did so: he taught it to Mavis, first, when she begged and begged and begged and then bribed him with Mookie’s saltwater taffy (which, by the way, was worth it), and taught it to Lucretia and Barry, second, when he joked about falling asleep at the new wheel on a postcard and his crew came in for an intervention, and taught it to Angus, third, as a coming-of age gift.  
The apartment space below-decks became a home like the Starblaster did, even though it was smaller; the bookshelves were overflowing now with new books and the couches fixed by Magnus multiple times, the kitchen was big enough for the twins to cook in yet small enough for Taako to complain, the extra bedroom space let him fit the seven of them if Magnus and Lucretia took the couches, and yet everything felt new, because every time he was reminded of a friend he felt a renewed sense of happiness. But in the end, even the bedroom didn’t look the same: it had a new bed frame, big enough to fit him and one more, and had a quilt over his sheets that Mavis made for him, and his desk was covered in more stray pen marks from the postcards, and the closet that only had one suit in it had all the clothes he bought with Lup, and the desk lamp was one that he, Barry and Magnus built from scratch, and a fuzzy carpet he, Lup and Magnus impulse-bought, and the window on the wall behind his bed, to shine the light in his room. The walls, too, had changed, though the once-static pictures were still there - there were just more pictures now, more paintings and photography and pictures of new memories, because nowadays, he had more to his life than what used to be static.

**Author's Note:**

> A few things before I go:
> 
> 1\. I think, out of everyone, Lup is the one I struggled the most with? If you have any Davenport and Lup bonding time ideas let me know and like. Shit I can write a whole fic with it.
> 
> 2\. If you're looking for things to comment about, because this is actually a recycled idea from an older WIP, I'm kinda scared that while the premise was good my writing deteriorated as it got later at night? So any help/feedback with that would be awesome! Also, if you have any idea as to what I should write tomorrow, do share, because I didn't think that far ahead.
> 
> 3\. After the free day, I'm going to take a well-deserved break, and then hopefully write some new arc material, if there's potential there! I love the new PCs, and I really want to try that, so here we are!
> 
> That's about it - thanks for reading this monster of a fic <3


End file.
